how much to spend for a wheel set?

cenkee

Hey,

I am new into road cycling and got myself a scott speedsdter s50 a couple of months ago . I absolutely love it. But like most riders here I look constantly to web sites for better parts, clothing etc. You are never satisfied with what you have I guess. Now I am thinking of changing the wheelset but I dont know how much to spend to get a reasonable improvement. Stock wheels are "Alex Race 28 Aero Profile, 20 Front / 24 Rear".
Would buying a shimano rs30 or fulcrum 7 or mavic aksium put a smile on my face or would I not even find any difference? Then there is a pair of used ultegra 6700's that I have laid my eyes on but I am not sure about second hand wheels. I am a recreational rider going on mostly weekends for 60-80 km rides so no races or anything for me. What do you think I should do?

Thank you

zn533

Get some posh tyres first. I recommend Continental GP4000S or equivalent. Much cheaper and probably a more tangible difference.

amaferanga

Just ride the wheels you have through the winter and then think about some nice new wheels in the spring. Then buy the ones you like the look of best that are within your budget. If you're just riding for fun there's no need to spend a fortune on carbon wheels or anything daft like that.

elderone

Im in a similar situation to you and im getting rs30,s in white purely because i like the look of them and any performance gain is an advantage.Some on here said wheels that come with the bike roughly equate to about 10% of the bike cost.On that basis the wheels on my bike are £90 wheels and the rs30 were about £250 ish when intoduced so they are definately an improvement over stock.Along with new tyres as recomended above or something similar,then the smiles per miles adds up to one happy chappy.

nochekmate

elderone wrote:

Im in a similar situation to you and im getting rs30,s in white purely because i like the look of them and any performance gain is an advantage.Some on here said wheels that come with the bike roughly equate to about 10% of the bike cost.On that basis the wheels on my bike are £90 wheels and the rs30 were about £250 ish when intoduced so they are definitely an improvement over stock.Along with new tyres as recomended above or something similar,then the smiles per miles adds up to one happy chappy.

Since when exactly have RS30s been £250 - usually freely available for £130 or so (don't be taken in by this RRP malarky)

elderone

nochekmate wrote:

elderone wrote:

Im in a similar situation to you and im getting rs30,s in white purely because i like the look of them and any performance gain is an advantage.Some on here said wheels that come with the bike roughly equate to about 10% of the bike cost.On that basis the wheels on my bike are £90 wheels and the rs30 were about £250 ish when intoduced so they are definitely an improvement over stock.Along with new tyres as recomended above or something similar,then the smiles per miles adds up to one happy chappy.

Since when exactly have RS30s been £250 - usually freely available for £130 or so (don't be taken in by this RRP malarky)

Looks like i was taken in by the RRP malarky..my bad.
So where are they for £130 cant find any near that price?
Bike radars own review when released had them at £219.99 so id say thats not to far off the RRP i,ve seen btw.

chanjy

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPS ... r_wheelset

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... himwhfr382

DubaiNeil

As much as you can afford/justify/get past the missus +10%

I had a older Scott S10 which came with Shimano R500's. Upgraded to Shimano RS80's for the same sort of reasons as yourself. I was not blown away by the difference between them (unfortunately for me...). Absolutely nothing wrong with the RS80's (and in fact I still use them on a "better" bike), but not a marked night/day difference.

There is always the possibility that I had a "good" set of R500's and a "not so good" set of RS80's, but on my sample set of 1 (!) there was little in it. I was also lucky to get the older version with the less garish graphics...

I did fit "better" tyres as well (Michelin Pro Race 3), and was inclined to believe that the differences that I did notice were more tyre related than wheel related...

Last night a mate "forced" me try his bike to which he had fitted new aero wheels - which he was claiming had noticeably increased his average speed - and (with absolutely no reference points whatsoever) I didn't feel that my efforts were being translated to increased speed over what I would have expected.

Tyres & tubes probably make more of an initial performance difference, but "nice" wheels are still nice wheels, and (IMO) will provide more consistent performance for longer than lower end wheels...

Neil

cenkee

thanks alot for the replies.

FlacVest

Deep carbon wheels will save you about 18 watts on average. It's virtually nothing. At high speeds.

Most riders are better off getting something light like the Shimano RS80s. Acceleration is a lot faster, and the bike will feel a lot lighter. I really, really spent a lot of time researching a new wheelset as I'm using the Alex AT400s, and after reading many studies and comparisons with real wattage absorbance numbers, something like a Zip 404 saves tens of watts over something substantially cheaper.

It just isn't cost effective if you aren't racing, or if you aren't at the level where you're holding 25 and up for the entire ride. Cat 4/3 level riding.

If you have to get something, get something light. Your body is going to determine how fast you go though, the wheelset will slightly help.

And if you want something for comparison, although hardly related, an aero helmet (TT helmet) saves about 4 seconds over a mile with the same effort put in. 4 seconds a mile. And that's if you hold 24mph the entire mile.

Riding in the drops will give you more improvement. Wearing skin-tight clothing will give you more of an improvement.

jonomc4

As a guide - I would describe myself as an OK cyclist - I go reasonably fast compared to my peers - I would consider spending between £350 and £500 on wheels - any more than that and I am not going to notice the difference sufficiently to justify the cost - but it also down to your budget and for what you will use them for - on my winter commuter I have a fairly crappy £150 set of wheels. When I change onto the better wheels there is a marked difference which I feel is worth the price, but I am sure half of the improvement is down to the lighter tubes and tyre I use on the better wheels.

amaferanga

FlacVest wrote:

Deep carbon wheels will save you about 18 watts on average. It's virtually nothing. At high speeds.

18 Watts is not nothing. But for recreational riding you certainly won't see anywhere near 18 Watts 'for free'.